Library of the First Recordings of Music Ever Made, Courtesy of the University of California-Santa Barbara

“Before MP3s, CDs, cassettes and vinyl records, people listened to … cylinders. First made of tinfoil, then wax and plastic, cylinder recordings, commonly the size and shape of a soda can, were the first commercially produced sound recordings in the decades around the turn of the 20th century.

The UCSB Library, with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Grammy Foundation, and donors, has created a digital collection of more than 10,000 cylinder recordings held by the UCSB Library. To bring these recordings to a wider audience, the Library makes them available to download or stream online for free.

This searchable database features all types of recordings made from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including popular songs, vaudeville acts, classical and operatic music, comedic monologues, ethnic and foreign recordings, speeches and readings.”

Ghia Nibbio II, 1956. Designed by Giovanni Savonuzzi  at Ghia for Count Gianni Lurani. Savonuzzi applied knowledge gained from the Turin Polytechno wind tunnel to come up with the streamlined styling for the second of the Count's record cars. It was powered by a 350cc Moto Guzzi single cylinder motorbike engine and between 1956 and 1958 the Nibbio II set up some international 350cc class speed records at Monza achieving a top speed of 130kph (81mph)

High Street, Manchester.

Hello! I'm loving Breaker Whiskey, it's so beautiful and it's also making me better at Morse Code, lol. I've got a question about episode 60, though, what's the music that's mixed into the morse and static? It sounds like a very old recording, and I love that sort of thing. Thank you for sharing your shows with us!

ahhhh this makes me so happy!! I LOVE that it's getting people into Morse Code, that thrills me.

(some spoilers below about episode 60 of @breakerwhiskey, including additional explanation from me that you may or may not want)

yes, the music mixed into episode 60 IS an old recording! it's a song played on a phonograph - I use a service called Splice to get a lot of the sounds I've put in a bunch of my shows, and there's a pack that's all sounds from vintage audio devices. there's a few of those sounds mixed into episode 60 - a phonograph song, the sounds of wax cylinders being played, and a recording of Thomas Edison explaining the phonograph - all of them distorted to be mostly unrecognizable.

the song file itself is just called 'phonograph song' - I think a bunch of audio engineers just recorded whatever they could off the vintage resources they had - but as far as I was able to glean from the lyrics (they're not that much clearer even undistorted) it's an 1860s confederate rallying song, which I thought would be just about the worst possible thing that you could hear played at random over a radio frequency. I wanted the sounds all together to be menacing, and Whiskey has talked a lot about the myth-making of America vs. the cruel reality, so it felt on theme.

that said, the phonograph sounds were chosen mainly for the literal quality of the sound - that tactile, fuzzy wax static - rather than any true story importance. there are story-relevant sounds mixed in there, but I'm not going to tell you what they are or what they mean!

just imagine the vinyl collection they're going to have at the south downs cottage 💕

going turbo insane about a tmg song is so dangerous because it will at some point occur to you that not only might they have played it live but if they have played it live john darnielle might have Said Things

recording metal on a 100 year old wax cylinder phonograph

Jonathan Sims voicing Seward is so fucking funny but like imagine, it’s just the Archivist, not the guy

favorite side character so far is the ghost (?) from tricentennial electrics

Sebastian Gives Zoe the Voice of a Nightingale. https://www.etsy.com/listing/234875449

Colani 2CV, 1981. A highly aerodynamic body placed over the chassis and engine of a Citroën 2CV that set a fuel economy world record by using 1.7 litres for 100 km (140 mpg). Luigi Colani (1928-2019) is pictured with the car (the guy with the moustache)

how do you think sol listens to his sheer heart attack record, does he have an old black tech record player somewhere, a magic powered record player, or does he just keep the record in mint condition while using future spotify

I've wondered about that too and I figured that, since he made most of his swords and motorcycle himself, that he was probably able to make a record player too if he wasn't able to find one intact somewhere. The technology in them is relatively simple, especially compared to something like a motorcycle, and they don't take a lot of energy to power either. Stuff like phonographs/gramophones and early record players could be powered by a tension spring wound up with a crank on the side.

Strive's got this interesting kinda early 1900s technology with super advanced futuristic stuff worked into it aesthetic. You can see examples of it in the vehicle designs and in some of the player lobby items especially. When I drew his record player in this drawing I just gave him the player I have IRL (Audio Technica AT-LP60X) because I could just turn around and reference it, but in reality he probably has something that looks like this Victor Model VI converted over to the "legal power" magic system that replaced electricity around y2k in the game lore (instead of relying on the tension spring):

The cones on these old players weren't very great so I imagine he would've replaced that with something much better too, though I think the general aesthetic would be really similar to this with the wood case, brass accents, and green felt. Tbh the hardest part would probably be finding a needle that wouldn't scratch the hell outta his records lol

He's probably got something like futuristic Spotify too though, but I don't really know how that would function. Maybe it'd magically connect to that spell/system the characters use to call each other?

I feel like a 1980’s version of Dr Seward would be a big fan of betamax.

La Fiesta, Experimental Vitaphone August 6, 1926. Anna Case, w/ The Metropolitan Opera

La Fiesta was shown along with 8 other Vitaphone Soundies before the premier of Warner Brothers 112 minute Don Juan starring John Barrymore, Myrna Loy, Jane Winton and Mary Astor. Don Juan was the first U S Sound movie and premiered in New York August 6, 1926. The movie sound was produced using a 16 inch recording synchronized to the film projector, a new system called the Vitaphone by Warner Brothers.Don Juan had a pre recorded orchestra score with no dialogue The premier took place 14 months before Al Jolson's Jazz Singer which Jolson purported was the first movie with dialogue as he had ad-libbed a few lines. One of the eight short soundies shown before Don Juan, however, did have dialogue. La Fiesta was much more difficult to present as the music had to be synchronized perfectly to Anna Case's lips and the Cansino's dance steps. Don Juan only had a musical score with no singing or dialogue. Anna Case, Irving Berlin's mother in law, had been with the Met Opera from 1909 to 1920. She had been a major concert star for decades and had recorded for Columbia and Edison labels. Anna Case sings "Tu~Habanero". The Cansinos dance team consisted of Eduardo Cansino and his sister Elisa. Eduardo was the father of Marguerita Carmen Cansino who would become famous under the professional name Rita Hayworth. It has been widely reported that this was Rita dancing with her father but Rita would have only been 9 years old in 1926 and was not in this movie.

Why do you want to hurt him

Oh, you misread.

I said our goals of them wanting to hurt me are aligned. Of course, that doesn't mean I am going to make it easy for them.

Ehehehehehe

obsessed w the way edith speaks her thoughts aloud it's like a video game